King Island’s new freight vessel, John Duigan, arrived in Geelong for the first time Monday under an agreement between Bass Island Line (BIL) and GeelongPort which will see the vessel making regular trips to our city.
BIL will sail John Duigan weekly from Geelong, onto Grassy in King Island, then to Bell Bay on mainland Tasmania before returning to Geelong. BIL is bringing John Duigan into service as part of its commitment to providing a safe and reliable shipping service for the King Island community.
GeelongPort CEO, Brett Winter said the Port was chosen because of the efficient services for the handling and storage capability it provides for fertiliser and other primary King Island cargos.
“Operating Bass Island Line’s John Duigan service out of GeelongPort allows us to support the King Island community. GeelongPort is committed to being the island’s critical link to Victoria,” Mr Winter said.
TasPorts CEO Paul Weedon said the John Duigan vessel was taking the BIL service to the next level. BIL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TasPorts, which is a state-owned company responsible for managing, operating and developing ports in Tasmania
“By offering a direct route from Geelong we are driving down our customers’ overall costs and speeding up delivery times to King Island,” Mr Weedon said.
John Duigan has been tailored specifically to the island’s freight needs and has excellent sea-state handling in the Bass Strait which will deliver reliability of service for customers and stakeholders.
The new vessel replaces BIL’s smaller Investigator II which operated under a transshipment service sailing cargo from Devonport to King Island which had been shipped across to Tasmania from Melbourne via another shipping provider.
John Duigan is an impressive 80 meter vessel , a deck area of 747m2 and a capacity of 114 TEUs. It has a V-shaped hull and is longer, heavier and wider than its predecessor.